Raising the ABV on pumpkin kit

[Mhill2079]

So I bought the Smashing Pumpkin kit from Northern Brewer. You can see the recipe here

http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/SmashingPumpkinEX.pdf

And I am wanting to raise the ABV by about 2% from what it is just by using the included ingredients (5% or so). I ordered some french oak because I wanted to add that with some rum in the secondary but was told for the oak to work out ok I would have to raise the ABV some. Plus this is something I will probably let age a bit till Halloween time.

Anyways, so to get the ABV up a little I read that I could add one lb of sugar (for the 5 gallon batch) and this would raise it about 1% or i could use one lb more of DME. So if I followed the directions but then also added 1 lb of extra DME and 1 lb of brown sugar for the full 60 min boil this should raise the ABV 2% right? I was also debating using a lb of maple syrup so it would hopefully raise it more like 2.7-3% This is what i gather from other recipes I have read. I just wanted to make sure this would work before I committed to it.

Any thoughts or better ideas?

 

[Reno_eNVy]

If you upped the ABV by something as high as 2% you're going to have to adjust everything accordingly or else you're going to have an under-hopped, under-spiced Pumpkin Ale.

For a beer like this you do NOT want to add a pound of sugar to increase Original Gravity. A beer like that needs to have decent body, and adding sugar (which is 100% fermentable) will make the beer ferment dry and thus seem thin. Same goes for maple syrup as it is also mostly fermentable.

But just remember to scale up with your hops and spices. Try using brewing software like BeerSmith.

 

[Mhill2079]

So i should just use like 2 more lbs of DME and then up the hops and what not to match it ratio wise?